A Dutch cargo plane loaded with coffins holding the bodies of some of the Malaysian Airlines plane passengers, leaves for the Netherlands from Kharkiv airport, Ukraine, Wednesday, July 23, 2014. The Dutch government has declared Wednesday a day of national mourning as the country prepares for the arrival of the first bodies of victims of the downed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. (AP Photo/ Olga Ivashchenko)

KHARKIV, Ukraine (AP) – Two military transport planes carrying 40 coffins bearing victims of the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 have landed in the southern city of Eindhoven.

Six days after the Boeing 777 was shot down over the battlefields of eastern Ukraine, the first bodies finally arrived Wednesday in the Netherlands, the country that bore the heaviest toll in the crash that killed all 298 passengers and crew.

A Dutch Hercules C-130 that Dutch government spokesman Lodewijk Hekking says is carrying 16 coffins was closely followed by an Australian C-17 Globemaster plane carrying 24 coffins.

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